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Financial Conclusion of D1 Construction Likely to Be Postponed Again
Friday 18 June 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, June 18 (TASR) - The financial regime for the D1 highway construction via the public-private-partnership (PPP) project, postponed for the fourth time, now to June 30, is again very unlikely to be closed this time, according to information published by Hospodarske Noviny.
This is because if the current Government fails to make the deadline, and the new centre-right Cabinet comes to power, the whole construction project involving D1 motorway section between Martin (Zilina region) and Presov will take longer than originally projected.
"The section has to be factually reassessed when it comes to tracking its route. We know there were some other alternative routes ... not just the one that has been slowing down the project," TASR was told by Stanislav Janis (SDKU-DS), dropping a hint on the environmental concerns being expressed in Brussels. According to Janis, one of the options to be considered would be building a tunnel rather than leading the motorway on the surface.
The whole process has been slowed down by negotiations with the European Commission over environmental issues. Environmentalists along with some scientists claim that the highway construction will damage a rare peatbog located in the north of the country.
The financial conclusion of the project has been postponed four times already - at first from early to late April, then to May 28, June 11 and finally, to June 30, 2010. The European Bank For Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) stands ready to invest €250 million into the €4-billion project. After European Commission approval, another €1 billion will come from the European Investment Bank (EIB), in turn is to be followed by a number of commercial banks.
The emerging new Government - made up of four centre-right parties - also has plans to re-evaluate the cost of the D1 itself. "Our interest is to reassess this in terms of its effectiveness - so that it was built for only as much as necessary," Most-Hid vice-chairman Zsolt Simon told TASR. According to vice-chairman of Christian Democrats (KDH) Anton Marcincin, the whole project has to be looked at based on analyses reflecting the reality. "So that the PPPs (public-private partnerships) represent an economic solution, and not excessive expenditures," Marcincin told TASR.
However, it's not only environmental issues and overpricing that's viewed as imperfections in the first package of PPPs. Also, there are suspicions of possible violation of laws, according to Hospodarske Noviny, which has reported that Slovakia's environment inspectors are working to establish whether the perpetrators of transgressions of nature protection laws committed during the government-rushed D1 motorway projects.
The daily wrote that the environment authorities and builders are understood to have broken the nature protection legislation in Zilina region at least three times, with the damage caused to the protected areas by building workers put at €65,000.
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